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NEWSMAKER/EVE POLLARD: Tabloid veteran turns publisher for her next act - The Fleet Street trouper is tight-lipped about her new venture. By Anna Griffiths

’Is this another Cabal?’ was the question echoing around the media
industry after Campaign revealed last week that Eve Pollard was bursting
into the magazine market with her new company, Parkhill
Publications.

’Is this another Cabal?’ was the question echoing around the media

industry after Campaign revealed last week that Eve Pollard was bursting

into the magazine market with her new company, Parkhill

Publications.

Pollard, a larger-than-life veteran of Fleet Street, is to launch three

magazines by the beginning of next year. She remains tight-lipped about

which sectors those magazines will be in and her pitch is low key - in

contrast to Sally O’Sullivan’s entrance into the magazine market last

year with Cabal, pledging to launch 12 magazines in 12 months. But

Pollard is quietly confident and has the backing of the venture

capitalist group, Phildrew Ventures, which evidently believes that she

can produce the goods.

Although her management counterparts at Parkhill are less well known,

few would ignore the forceful presence of Pollard, whose credentials

include editorships of the Sunday Mirror, The Sunday Express, editing

The Mail on Sunday’s You magazine, the News of the World’s Sunday

Magazine and launching Elle in the US. Once described as the ’killer

bimbo’ of Fleet Street, Pollard has a reputation for being a feisty and

determined character who gets what she wants.

For now, the magazine and media industry is welcoming Pollard’s new

venture.

Nicholas Coleridge, managing director of Conde Nast, mischievously

exclaims: ’I think it’s great news. It’s like Sally O’Sullivan again.

It’s great the way that feisty old troupers who’ve played every gig in

town just keep on going. Eve’s sensational and a great addition to the

magazine scene.’

Stan Myerson, joint managing director of Northern & Shell, who worked

with Pollard when he was at The Sunday Express and more recently during

her short-lived stint on Chic magazine, observes: ’If she operates in

the way she did when I was at the Express Group, she will certainly

stand a chance. She knows what she wants and she will literally do what

she has to do to get her way. She doesn’t suffer fools gladly, and isn’t

afraid to have a run-in with someone if necessary.’

Given the spate of launches in the sector, the magazine market appears

to be booming. Cabal’s arrival signalled a renewed confidence that

niches could be created.

Mollin Publishing, which is licensed to produce UK versions of two US

magazines, Shape and Men’s Fitness, recently launched. And now we have

Parkhill.

But Cabal’s ambitions, which were first greeted with interest and

curiosity, have since disappointed some industry observers. One says: ’I